(2000)
WIJDAN is the first film, in English, to witness the sacred ceremony of the Gnawa the trance and transmission of the Moroccan music that heals.
As a testament to a fast changing Africa, this electrifying 52 minute documentary captures the modernity of these two masters of the supernatural. As they transmit secret knowledge to their children we rediscover the meaning of transmission in the 21st century, because, « who knows the color of the chick before it hatches? »
The Malian shaman Sibiri Samake comes from the bush outside Bamako to Marrakech Morocco where he meets Maalem Brahim ElBalkani, the gnawa master. Brahim has baraka, the powerful soul. He conjures the spirits with the sound of his threestring guembri.
His daughter Fouzia confides the relationship she has with the “Red spirit” and how she feels compelled to dance, and falls easily into trance. She tries to explain this enigmatic world she comes from.
Sibiri the bambara recognizes parts of the trance ritual because it has its roots in Mali. The Moroccan Gnawa have practiced this ritual for centuries since they were taken from the Malian empire and brought to North Africa as slaves 300 years ago.
They meet like two brothers separated by time. Time that we now call history.